Landlord Claims Tenants' Income Exceeds Deregulation Threshold

In 2006, landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenants’ rent-stabilized apartment. The DRA ruled against landlord after finding that tenants’ household income for the prior two years was less than the $175,000 deregulation threshold. Landlord appealed, claiming that tenants’ two daughters lived with tenants and that their income should have been included in any calculation of the household income. Tenants claimed that their daughters had moved out of the apartment when they went to college. But one daughter's summer schedule listed the apartment as her address at the time the income certification form was delivered. And without conclusive proof that a college residence became either daughter's new primary residence, there was a presumption that the colleges were temporary residences only. Therefore, the DHCR reopened the case and sent it back to the DRA for reconsideration. The DRA should request the daughters' tax return information so that DTF records could be compared.

Giffuni Brothers: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. WE410040RO (6/9/09) [5-pg. doc.]